Curated category
20th-century English male writers
- J. R. R. TolkienOn the evening of his 21st birthday, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien sat down and wrote a letter to a young woman named Edith Mary Bratt.
- Christopher NolanChristopher Nolan does not own a smartphone, and he has no email address. He hand-delivers his scripts to the actors he wants, and his wife handles the rest…
- Rudyard KiplingRudyard Kipling was born on the 30th of December 1865 in Bombay, and by the time he died in 1936, he had become something no single label can hold.
- Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill was born on the 30th of November 1874 inside Blenheim Palace, the ancestral home his family had held for generations in Oxfordshire.
- Raymond ChandlerRaymond Thornton Chandler was born in Chicago in 1888 and died in 1959, having spent much of the intervening years doing almost everything except what he…
- Thomas HardyThomas Hardy died at Max Gate on the 11th of January 1928, but not before dictating one final poem to his wife from his deathbed.
- Ian MacDonaldIan MacCormick entered the world on the 3rd of October 1948 in London. He attended Dulwich College before moving to King's College, Cambridge.
- Sacha Baron CohenSacha Baron Cohen walked onto the red carpet of the 84th Academy Awards carrying an urn he claimed contained the ashes of Kim Jong-il.
- W. H. AudenW. H. Auden died on the 29th of September 1973 in a Vienna hotel room, a few hours after reading his poems aloud at the Palais Pálffy.
- Antony BeevorAntony Beevor was born in Kensington, London, on the 14th of December 1946, into a family with writing in its blood going back generations.
- Stephen HawkingStephen Hawking spent his final years communicating at roughly one word per minute, twitching a single cheek muscle to select letters from a screen.
- Cavan ScottCavan Scott was born on the 18th of April 1973. He began his career writing about rural life rather than space operas or time travel.
- David AttenboroughDavid Attenborough turned 100 years old on the 8th of May 2026, and the Royal Albert Hall filled with singers, filmmakers, composers, and royalty to mark the…
- Geoffrey EltonGeoffrey Elton arrived in Britain in February 1939 as a Jewish refugee from Czechoslovakia, a teenage boy named Gottfried Rudolf Otto Ehrenberg.
- Ronald CoaseRonald Harry Coase was born on the 29th of December 1910 in Willesden, a suburb of London, and he would live to the age of 102 - long enough to see ideas he…
- Jeremy Black (historian)Jeremy Black entered the academic world through a specific sequence of institutions. He studied at Queens' College, Cambridge, before moving to St John's…
- Mark LewisohnMark Lewisohn was born on the 16th of June 1958 in England. His entry into professional history began with a simple quiz at the first London Beatles…
- Richard AldingtonRichard Aldington was born Edward Godfree Aldington in Portsmouth on the 8th of July 1892, into a household where books lined every wall and both parents…
- Gary WhittaGary Leslie Whitta was born on the 21st of July 1972 in England. His professional journey began within the pages of ACE magazine, a publication dedicated to…
- Eric ChristiansenEric Christiansen entered the world on the 15th of September 1937 in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire. His early education took place at Charterhouse School before he…
- Correlli BarnettCorrelli Barnett was born on the 28th of June 1927 in Norbury, in the County Borough of Croydon, into a Britain that still considered itself a great power.
- A. L. RowseA. L. Rowse was born on the 4th of December 1903 in Tregonissey, a village near St Austell in Cornwall, the son of a china clay worker.
- Alan WattsAlan Wilson Watts was born on the 6th of January 1915 in Chislehurst, Kent, into a middle-class household at Rowan Tree Cottage, 3 Holbrook Lane, where his…